


This rink

by JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Jack's POV, M/M, Season/Series 04, Spoilers, based on episode 04.25
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23598430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle/pseuds/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle
Summary: Based on Check Please!episode 04.25
Relationships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Comments: 8
Kudos: 193





	This rink

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Check Please! [episode 04.25](https://www.checkpleasecomic.com/comic/4-25-01)

Jack skated out, making a clean cut in the ice.

This was right, he decided.

When he was planning this, Faber had been the first place that came to mind, the place where he and Bitty began. But then he’d second-guessed himself, thinking maybe the Haus. The Haus was where Bitty had taught him to make an apple pie, the place they had first kissed.

But the Haus -- was tiny, and the rooms were small. If their friends were going to be there, they’d have to be in the same room to see what was happening. And that meant they’d be right on top of them.

They’d be here in a little while. Where was Bits? He’d been just about ready when he shooed Jack out of the locker room. 

“Go ahead, get warmed up,” he’d said. “I’ll be right there.”

Bitty had looked at Jack with -- anticipation? excitement? maybe a little wariness? -- in his eyes when Jack got to the Haus the night before and told him he had a surprise.

When Jack said, “I talked to Coach Hall and got us the ice at Faber for after dinner tomorrow. One last skate before graduation, eh?” Bitty’s face had fallen, just a little. But he looked back up with a wide grin and said, “Great! But I’m wearing my figure skates. We can practice that lift.”

“Whatever you want, bud.”

Did the figure skates not fit anymore? They were only from Christmas, but Bitty was young enough that he might still be growing. Was this a bad idea?

There Bitty was.

“Took you long enough, Bittle,” Jack said, taking in the cuffed jeans and faded Samwell hoodie.

“I was taking it in,” Bitty said, taking Jack’s hand. “Shall we?”

They skated together, like they had during all those checking practices, but now Bittle wasn’t geared up -- or shaking -- and Jack could see him, the way the rink lights played on his hair and the way the cold and activity brought the pink into his cheeks. The jeans and hoodie weren’t designed to show every line of his body the way that some of his old figure skating costumes had, but Jack could still see the muscles move in his legs, the strength and the confidence that he carried himself with.

Sometimes Jack found it hard to believe this was the same frog that collapsed on the ice during his first practice -- and most of the practices thereafter for the first few weeks.

Sometimes he found it hard to believe he had not seen the determination in that frog, who kept coming back and trying again, no matter how hard it was.

They picked up speed and Bitty shot a sly grin at Jack. “Are you nervous?”

“Hah, a little,” Jack said, thinking of the lift -- he really did not want to drop Bitty on his head -- and of the ring in his pocket.

“You ready?” Bitty asked, putting a little more force in his strides and cutting front of Jack.

“Yup.”

“One, two, three …”

And then Bitty leapt and Jack caught his waist and somehow Bitty was stretched out, balanced between Jack’s hands and his shoulder.

Bitty crowed with pleasure, a sound Jack wanted to bottle and keep with him all the time.

“There you go!” Bitty was saying. “There you go!”

It struck Jack that Bitty was thrilled not just to be flying around the ice, but to be doing it with him.

Jack was thrilled to be supporting Bits, who had offered him so much support over the years.

After Jack set Bitty back on his skates, Bitty laughed.

“Good job, honey,” he said.

“You’re not that heavy,” Jack said.

Bitty took a long look around as they drifted towards center ice.

“I’m gonna miss this rink,” he said.

Jack understood. He’d miss it too, now that Bitty was graduating. Sure, they’d still come back. Bitty would probably come to more games next year than Jack would. But it would never be Bitty’s rink again, not like it had been for the past four years.

Jack could give him one more memory, though. 

“Ah, Bits,” Jack said. “Well, I wanted to talk to you.”

Bits’ quick intake of breath, the look of fear in his eyes … shit, what had Jack done?

Then Jack remembered what Maman said when he told his parents he intended to propose.

Papa had whooped and raised his hands in victory on the screen on Jack’s laptop. He was doing a victory dance behind Maman, whose joy was quieter, but no less palpable.

“Just promise me one thing, Jacky,” she said. “Don’t start with ‘We need to talk,’ the way your father did. I thought I had totally misread the situation and he was going to break up with me!”

Bitty’s parents had been more restrained when Jack spoke to them last night. Coach Bittle had clapped him on the shoulder and said, “I can’t say this comes as much of a surprise.” Suzanne had teared up, given Jack a tight hug, and whispered in his ear, “Thank you for being so good to him.” Which felt as much like she was extracting a promise for the future as expressing gratitude for the past.

It was fine. There was no gratitude necessary, and he intended to do his best to be good to Bits, who had already brought so much light to his life.

Jack hurried to continue, so Bitty would know that this was a good thing (he hoped), not a bad thing. After their talks at Christmas, Jack was 99 percent sure that Bitty would say yes. He’d moved the ring he bought after the Stanley Cup win from the back corner of the top closet shelf, keeping it in the pocket of his travel bag, ready for the right moment.

At Christmas, Bitty had talked about still being in school and all he had to get through. Jack had almost ignored that and proposed after the Wellies won the national championship, but he hadn’t wanted to step on their celebration. Then Bitty had his thesis to do, and the last thing Jack wanted to do was throw that off the rails. Bitty needed to finish to graduate.

But now Bits was done, and this might be Jack’s last chance to truly surprise him.

He talked about how he first saw Samwell as a punishment, a place to serve his sentence of separation from professional hockey while he waited for his real life to start. How first Shitty, then Ransom and Holster and Lardo drew him out from behind the walls he had created to realize this _was_ real life. How the last four years -- not Jack’s own four years at college, but his four years with Bitty -- had made him understand what his life could be, what it was supposed to be.

“It started here, and it started with you, Bits.” Jack said, now down on one knee, and surely Bits knew what this was now. Now Jack just had to finish saying it. “Eric Bittle, will you marry me?”

Jack looked up, almost afraid of how certain he was that Bitty would say yes. He had planned this moment; it wasn’t one of his impulsive decisions, like kissing Bitty after his own graduation or kissing Bitty after winning the Stanley Cup. Maybe he shouldn’t have planned it. Those impulsive decisions had worked out well so far. And the decision to go to Samwell instead of a hockey powerhouse. That had been good, too.

But the worst decisions of his life had also been impulsive, and he owed it to Eric to be sure of this one.

The hoped for -- expected, even -- “yes” didn’t come. “Bitty -- hey, bud, come on, say something,” Jack said. But Bitty’s eyes were closing and he was falling -- and it was all Jack could do to catch him before his head thunked on the ice. Swooning sounded more romantic than it was in real life. “Or you can pass out at center ice.”

Bitty’s eyes fluttered open after a moment, and he pushed himself to kneel on the ice, Jack still kneeling in front of him.

“I’m getting deja vu,” Jack said, smiling, as Bitty said -- almost yelled -- “Yes!”

It was loud enough for all their friends -- Shitty and Lardo, Ransom and Holster, Bitty’s frogs -- who had crowded the bench to hear, and they let out a cheer just as Jack slid the ring on Bitty’s finger and they exchanged “I love you”s.

“Oh, my God,” Bitty said. “Were they all in on it?”

It only took a few moments for their friends to crowd around, then someone suggested hockey and Lardo somehow produced the key to the equipment room and Bitty said, “Y’all have to wait for me to change to hockey skates!” and the day ended with Jack and Bitty playing together again, with their friends around them.

Yeah, Jack was gonna miss this rink.


End file.
